Chapter 3
She pulled off the baseball cap as she jogged to her car. Once inside she sat for a moment in silence. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She'd been near him before, but he'd never seen her. She wondered if he might have had a glimmer of recognition, but quickly shook that thought off. He didn't really see me. That was the plan. Just then, her cell phone rang. She recognized the number; it was work.
"Special Agent Hart," she answered.
"We need you to come in," the voice on the other end said.
"But I'm on vacation for the next week," she replied.
"Take vacation some other time. Your expertise is required here." It was more of a command than a request.
"Give me a couple hours, I'm not at home," she said and then hung up, not waiting for a reply. I guess sitting at home waiting for him to call will just have to wait, she thought as she started up her car and headed for home.
Grissom sat at his desk, staring at the DNA profile. Having memorized his own, it was simply a matter of finding the common alleles. One…two…three…
"Grissom," Catherine said, standing in the doorway. He didn't move. "Earth to Grissom."
Slightly startled, he looked up. "Catherine, what can I do for you?"
"What are you looking at?" she asked, ignoring his question.
He hesitated. "Just…a DNA profile."
"Did we catch a bad guy?" Catherine grinned.
"It's not for a case," Grissom replied. He wanted to tell her, to tell someone. Seven alleles, Alexandria was his daughter. But he couldn't, not yet. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"Oh yeah," Catherine replied. "I needed to ask you about the Taylor case…." But Grissom wasn't really listening. He was trying to figure out what to do now.
For the next couple days, every time her phone rang her heart jumped. She kept hoping he would call. And every time it wasn't him, her hope faded a little bit. He'll call, she assured herself. He'll call.
As the days passed, Grissom grew less and less sure of what he should do. Dead bodies he could handle, women he could not. And a daughter? That was one thing he had never even thought about.
"Catherine," he called, as she walked by his office. She was probably the most trustworthy of all the Las Vegas CSIs. She should be able to give me some advice. She's been on the daughter's end of this, he thought, remembering her search for her father and its eventually end at Sam Braun.
"What's up, Gris?" she responded, popping into his office.
"I need an experienced perspective on a personal matter," he said, motioning for her to shut the door.
She raised an eyebrow, "Sure, anything I can do to help." This is odd. Grissom rarely talks about anything personal.
"Remember the letter I go the other day?"
"The one the girl accidentally got blood on?" she questioned.
"Well, it wasn't so accidental," Grissom replied. Catherine cocked her head in question. "It was left as a sample."
"A sample for what?" she didn't know where this was going.
"To prove what the letter said." Grissom paused. "I have a daughter."
"A daughter? How? Who? When?" Catherine was flabbergasted. "What do you know about her?"
Grissom scanned his desk and picked up the print out from NCIC. He handed it to Catherine. "She's an FBI agent assigned to the Las Vegas office."
"Wow, she is beautiful…and smart!" She exclaimed reading the print out.
"She looks like her mother," Grissom stated.
"Who was her mother?" Catherine asked, not knowing if he'd be willing to answer.
"A woman I spent a summer with," he replied.
Catherine saw something in his eyes, "Ohhh, the one that got away."
"The one that got away?" Grissom wasn't following.
"You know," she explained. "The One."
Grissom slowly nodded. He understood…and agreed.
"Have you talked to," Catherine scanned the sheet looking for the girl's name, "Alexandria?"
"No, I haven't talked to her. She's an adult. She's lived her entire life until this point without me. What would I say?"
"You need to talk to her," Catherine said, more of a command than a suggestion. "You may have missed out on her life until this point, but don't you want to be a part of it from here on out? She's reached out to you, she wants you to be in her life."
"Should I just," he started.
"Call her," she finished.
He picked up the phone and dialed.
